After her original ad for Americans for Prosperity was soundly debunked, Julie Boonstra turned tearful, looking out at the throngs of imaginary people who hate getting health care benefits and telling them she just wants to be heard.
If you just want to be heard, Julie, I suggest you live in reality first instead of some invented bubble of victimhood. Because as it turns out, Julie Boonstra is actually saving money with her new plan under the ACA.
Boonstra said Monday her new plan she dislikes is the Blue Cross Premier Gold health care plan, which caps patient responsibility for out-of-pocket costs at $5,100 a year, lower than the federal law’s maximum of $6,350 a year. It means the new plan will save her at least $1,200 compared with her former insurance plan she preferred that was ended under Obamacare’s coverage requirements.
[...]
Boonstra’s old plan cost $1,100 a month in premiums or $13,200 a year, she previously told The News. It didn’t include money she spent on co-pays, prescription drugs and other out-of-pocket expenses.
By contrast, the Blues’ plan premium costs $571 a month or $6,852 for the year. Since out-of-pocket costs are capped at $5,100, including deductibles, the maximum Boonstra would pay this year for all of her cancer treatment is $11,952.
When advised of the details of her Blues’ plan, Boonstra said the idea that it would be cheaper “can’t be true.”
“I personally do not believe that,” Boonstra said.
Math is hard, Ms. Boonstra. We understand that. And complaining that you might hit your out-of-pocket maximum in the first month of the year is stretching things to a point of no return, since everything would be covered after that.
It should come as no surprise to anyone anywhere that Boonstra has ties to the Michigan Republican Party:
Boonstra is the ex-wife of Mark Boonstra, the former Washtenaw County GOP chairman whom Gov. Rick Snyder appointed to the Michigan Court of Appeals in 2012. Julie Boonstra said she’s never been a political person beyond advocating for lower-cost oral chemotherapy treatment in Washington.
Kevin Drum has more sympathy for her than I do, but he also takes aim at the AFP Koch-heads who exploited her:
For purely venal political reasons, AFP found itself a woman fighting cancer and proceeded to stoke her fears of her new health coverage in order to get a TV ad made. A TV ad. These are people who, if there's any justice, should not be sleeping easily at night. They are swine.
If Julie Boonstra wants to remain in a permanent state of denial about the benefits of Obamacare, that's her choice. What she doesn't get to do is use that state of denial to influence other people. In the end, the numbers don't lie.
